In the early hours of Easter morning, the first mushers arrived into Kotzebue at the end of the Kobuk 440 sled dog race. The first place title and more than $11,000 purse went to Cim Smyth of Big Lake, who arrived just past 6 o’clock on Sunday morning – after 2 days 18 hours and 4 minutes on the trail.

It was a first-time win for Smyth, who says the race was his primary focus this year, after he chose not to run the 2015 Iditarod. Despite a controversial date change that pushed it closer to the finish of the 1000 mile sled dog race, the Kobuk 440 drew a total of twelve mushers this year – competing for an historic $35,000 combined pot.

And while several teams had completed the race from Fairbanks to Nome just two weeks earlier, that didn’t keep former Iditarod winner, and defending Kobuk 440 champion, Jeff King from the competition.

Smith and King travelled neck-and-neck for much of the race, with King leading from Ambler to the halfway point of Kobuk and back. But Smyth finally passed King on the westbound trail Saturday evening, at a shelter cabin between Ambler and Selawik.

“You know, when I caught Jeff out there at the shelter cabin, I felt pretty good,” he says. “I really felt like I had a big advantage because…he had a lot of time to make up at that point.”

“I stopped for twenty minutes at that shelter cabin,” says King. “And I’m glad [the dogs] did — they ate really, really well. They cleaned out a whole cooler while I was there. But, um, that’s where I was went he went by… and it became apparent — I mean my dogs had really full stomachs, they ate a lot at that shelter cabin — and I had to back off.”

The race was close, and tensions appeared to be high as the pair flew through several upriver checkpoints. But at the finish line, both competitors shook hands and congratulated each other on a great race.

Smyth even surprised King with an offer to remove booties from his rival’s team.

Kotzebue musher John Baker was next to arrive at the finish. He started the race with a strong showing –arriving first into Ambler, and collecting a bevy of local prizes in the process. Baker says another highlight came at the halfway point, where he caught up with cousins and other family members in Kobuk.

“That’s the wild side of my family,” he says.

Just as Baker was arriving in Kotzebue, the battle for fourth and fifth place had begun. Kristin Bacon and Ken Anderson sprinted, less than a mile apart, across the narrow stretch of Hotham Inlet.

Ultimately Bacon emerged victorious, arriving fourth to the finish line in her longest distance race to date. But Bacon says the nearly 500-mile event wasn’t as intimidating as she’d expected.

“I had a blast. I mean, I totally lucked out this year. This was stellar,” she says.

Bacon was the only woman to run this year’s Kobuk 440, and the only musher to complete the race with a full team of twelve dogs.

Tim Pappas, racing a team of dogs from Martin Buser’s Happy Trails kennel, arrived next in sixth place. The race rookie says he was more than pleased with his placement, which he hopes will go toward qualifying for next year’s Iditarod.

Mushers continued to arrive throughout the afternoon and night — including Kotzebue locals Andrew Brown, Paul Hanson and Jim Bourquin. As of Monday afternoon, Dempsey Woods Sr. was the last musher still on the trail, despite a stormy turn in the weather.

Only one musher scratched from the race; Tony Browning says he decided to pack it in after his dogs, many of whom ran the Iditarod with Nome’s Aaron Burmeister, began experiencing health problems near Selawik.

But Browning was quick to quip that the race was still a pleasant one, saying: “It was fun while it lasted.”

Update: Dempsey Woods Sr. arrived into Kotzebue around 4 p.m. on Monday afternoon, as the race’s official red lantern finisher. Earlier this year, Woods Sr. — who lives in Kotzebue, but has roots in Shungnak and Ambler — also won the Noatak 120 sled dog race.

It was a close finish under a blaring sun on a warm afternoon, but Copper Basin 300 veteran Tom Jamgochian was eight minutes faster than Kuskokwim 300 finisher Rolland Trowbridge in this weekend’s Nome Council 200 race.

Four Nome Kennel Club mushers took off from the city’s snow dump around 10:00 a.m. Saturday, racing along the Iditarod trail until turning northeast to Council seven miles outside of White Mountain. Before the race’s start the Nome Kennel Club secured a Fairbanks veterinarian for the race, qualifying all finishers for the Iditarod.

Stephanie Johnson—who was still on the trail as of Monday morning—said at the start she was just looking to enjoy her first mid-distance run.

“I’m going to take it easy. This is my first race over 30 miles, so I’m a nervous wreck,” she said. “But I’m gonna just make it fun for the dogs and fun for me. I’m not here to race I’m here to run. It’s something I do for my own well-being and keeps me healthy and balances work and I love my dogs.”

Diana Haecker was the third across the finish Sunday. Training since August, she said it’s been difficult to get mileage on her team while racing in rural Alaska.

“It’s hard for rural mushers to get to races. And we all know that. That’s why we have to get local racers going here, so that local people have the ability to race, qualify, and keep the sport alive.” With a race that sets her up for the Iditarod, she’s optimistic about next season. “Maybe in the next year, we can do some longer racers outside of Nome.”

The four mushers rested after summiting the Topcock Hills Saturday before heading northeast to Council. Despite a few dogs getting loose and having to be chased back onto the line, the four competitors said it was a beautiful trail into the race’s only checkpoint just outside of Council. All four took the race’s mandatory 6-hour Council layover, and around 5 a.m. Sunday they hit the trail back to the coast.

On a straight 80-mile run from Council to the finish, Jamgochian led into Safety, with Trowbridge just a few miles behind, until Trowbridge surged ahead and led nearly to Nome.

KNOM Chief Engineer Rolland Trowbridge took second place in the weekend Nome Council 200 race. Photo: Matthew F. Smith, KNOM.

“He passed me at Safety. I pulled a Zirkle,” Jamgochian laughed at the finish line. “I was resting at Safety, and I didn’t know where he was. And all of a sudden he appeared, like the second I sat down, and he passed me. I was behind him until three miles ago.”

Back on the trail, Jamgochian’s team moved faster but wasn’t able regain the lead, shying away from overtaking Trowbridge. Three miles out, Jamgochian’s team surged, taking the lead to be first at the finish. Minutes later Trowbridge came in to claim second. He said the infamous Solomon blowhole wasn’t the worst he’d seen, but it worked the dogs well, leading to two very tired dog teams at the finish.

“This last little bit between these two teams is more like two boxers in the ring where they’re both hugging each other, they can’t swing because they’re so tired,” Trowbridge said. “I should have just put my brake on and let him pass me and then sit behind him … because I dragged him probably ten miles, where he sat right behind me, and it just sucks the life out of your team. So lesson learned, I won’t do that again.”

Jamgochian’s first-place finish came with a total trail time of 29 hours and 27 minutes, earning him first place and bringing home a $1,000 prize.

A post on the race’s Facebook page says trail conditions, logistics, and “changes to racer needs” led to the cancelation of this year’s race.

Paul Johnson interviewed by KNOM’s Laureli Kinneen at the finish line of Iditarod 2011. Photo: David Dodman, KNOM.

The mid-distance race from Unalakleet to Kaltag and back—and then along the Norton Sound coast to the finish line in Nome—was first run in 2012, and ended with a breathtaking race to the finish between John Schandelmeier and the eventual winner, Pete Kaiser. But the race has struggled in the years since, seeing the event significantly shortened in 2013 and canceled all together last year due to poor snow conditions along the trail.

The race was set to start Wednesday, Feb. 11, in the middle of another major race, the Yukon Quest.

In its 36th year, Kaiser’s win is the first time in 29 years that a local western Alaska musher has won the mid-distance race. Bethel’s Myron Angstman was the last such winner back in 1986.

Last year’s winner, Rohn Buser, held a commanding lead throughout the first half of the race. But in retracing the trail from Aniak and back to Bethel, Buser’s runs grew longer as his team slowed slightly. Kaiser’s dog team remained consistent, posting runs between checkpoints that differed little from the first half of the race. That allowed Kaiser to whittle down Buser’s seven-minute lead out of the the final four-hour layover at the Tuluksak checkpoint, with Kaiser overtaking Buser about six or seven miles out of the checkpoint.

“This team is so locked into a speed right now,” Kaiser told KYUK radio in Bethel. “Whether they’re fresh or tired, they get locked into that consistent speed.”

Buser also took a wrong turn off the trail just 12 miles outside of Bethel (a mistake his father Martin Buser also made on his way in to the finish line), heading instead southwest into the Church Slough truck road. It remains unclear what, if any, adjustments will be made against the mushers’ times for leaving the trail.

In the end Buser crossed the finish line 13 minutes behind Kaiser. Third place went to Jeff King, who arrived at 5:58 a.m, followed by Tony Browning in fourth and Ken Anderson in fifth.

Mushers from the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta included Mike Williams Jr., who finished in 11th place; Richie Diehl, who finished 13th, and Mike Williams Sr., who was 17th. Isaac and Nathan Underwood scratched in Aniak, as did Kotzebue musher Chuck Schaeffer.

Though Kaiser’s total trail time of just over 35 hours was the fastest in the race’s history, it was also along a shorter trail, with poor conditions on the river resulting in the removal of the Whitefish Lake loop leading into the Aniak halfway point. Race organizer Myron Angstman said this year’s time will be noted with an asterisk in the K300 record books due to the shortened trail.

Kaiser takes home $25,000 for winning the race, from a record-high purse of $123,300.

Two Nome mushers also finished the Kuskokwim 300 this weekend, Rolland Trowbridge and Tara Cicatello.

Finishing in 19th place was Rolland Trowbridge, who was the Red Lantern during his rookie K300 race last year. He was vying for 18th with Scott Janssen, and led him into Tuluksak early Sunday morning. But Janssen gained ground and passed Trowbridge just past Kwethluk.

Rolland Trowbridge on the K300 trail. Photo: Ben Matheson, KYUK.

Trowbridge—who is also KNOM’s Chief Engineer—finished the race with seven dogs on his team. He said he’s proud of his team’s performance but the icy trail meant he and many other mushers were returning home with injured teams.

“I am very happy with how the race went. That being said, the dogs really took a pounding,” Trowbridge said in a phone interview Sunday. “I think everybody’s teams suffered a lot. A lot of dropped dogs. All of my dogs that were dropped were not dropped from exhaustion, they were dropped from injuries. It’s hard to see dogs get hurt, for me. You know I don’t like dropping dogs.”

Trowbridge says those dropped dogs are a result of the fast icy trail, which was so slick he says he stood on his sled’s brake for the first 40 miles of the race to keep his team from going too fast. That’s not likely to be a problem during his next race, the Yukon Quest, which starts in just under three weeks. He said after the icy, sprint-race conditions of the K300 trail, he’ll be happy to have the 1,000-mile trail and longer rest time of the Quest.

The other Nome musher in the race this year was Tara Cicatello, a former KNOM volunteer and handler for Trowbridge. Cicatello finished with seven dogs as the 21st musher in to the finish around 12:40 a.m. Monday.

Tara Cicatello at the K300 finish. Photo: Ben Matheson, KYUK.

“It was a long haul but it was a lot of fun,” she told KYUK’s Ben Matheson. “I don’t know, the dogs did great and I’m very happy with them. This is my first ever sled dog race … you learn about the dedication it takes to be a musher. I give a lot of credit to the people who put this together, to mushers in general, to the dogs running 300 miles. Lots of things you learn.”

Cicatello finished one position ahead of the race’s red lantern, which went to Dee Dee Jonrowe and her puppy team, the last to cross the finish line just after 1:30 a.m. Monday.

KYUK’s Ben Matheson contributed to this story.

]]>http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2015/01/19/bethels-pete-kaiser-wins-kuskokwim-300/feed/2Mushers Brace for Fast, Icy Trail in Kuskokwim 300http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2015/01/16/mushers-brace-for-fast-icy-trail-in-kuskokwim-300/
http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2015/01/16/mushers-brace-for-fast-icy-trail-in-kuskokwim-300/#commentsFri, 16 Jan 2015 20:34:18 +0000http://www.knom.org/wp/?p=14024Twenty-five mushers will take off from Bethel over a fast, icy trail to Aniak and back Friday night in the 36th annual running of the Kuskokwim 300.]]>

Twenty-five mushers will take off from Bethel over a fast, icy trail to Aniak and back Friday in the 36th annual running of the Kuskokwim 300.

That’s down from an expected field of 31 mushers after six teams withdrew at Thursday’s pre-race meeting, including Unalakleet’s Donald Towarak.

With almost no snow on the ground along the race’s traditional route, and icy conditions prevailing, race organizer Zach Fansler says crews have staked out a trail that sticks mostly to the truck road along the river this year, cutting out the the Whitefish Lake loop. That means the race is now a direct run to Aniak and back to Bethel. Cutting the loop means a shorter race, too, with race officials estimating the trail to be about 270 miles. Mushers will be doing the race with just 12 dogs this year, compared to the 14 dog limit in previous years.

The field is stacked full of competitive mushers, young and old, including Rohn Buser, the race’s defending champion. Also in the race are some of the biggest names in mushing, including past K300 champions like Jeff King and Martin Buser. Many other top-ten K300 finishers will be in the race as well, including Dee Dee Jonrowe, Lance Mackey, Aaron Burmeister.

Western Alaska mushers may have an advantage on this year’s hard, icy trail. Nome musher Rolland Trowbridge, who described the trail as looking “like Hoth,” the ice planet in the popular Star Wars films, said his team, and the teams of other western Alaska mushers, will have something of a home field advantage from training on similar conditions all year. Still, he said, it will be a difficult race.

“It’s jumbled ice, they’ve cut a trail through it. You can imagine broken sleds, damaged brakes, dogs with sore feet and paws from dealing with slipping on the ice and dealing with an uneven surface that is rock hard,” he said.

“I don’t look forward to falling on that river,” Trowbridge added. “It’s going to be a challenge.”

Trowbridge’s handler, Tara Cicatello, is also running the race with another team of 12 dogs from his 37-strong Maritime Kennels TSR. Trowbridge, who came away from his rookie run of the K300 last year as the race’s red lantern, said he plans to run the first 100 miles of the race in tandem with Cicatello.

Other western Alaska mushers hitting the trail include Kotzebue’s John Baker, and both Mike Williams Sr. and Mike Williams Jr., the latter of whom is running his ninth K300. There’s also Bethel’s Pete Kaiser, and Aniak mushers Isaac and Nathan Underwood and Richie Diehl.

Last year’s winner Rohn Buser crossed the finish line in Bethel at 9:18 Sunday morning. With the fast and shorter trail, race organizers said this year’s finish could come even earlier.

KNOM will have full coverage of the Kuskokwim 300 starting tonight at 6:30, and Saturday and Sunday with updates at 10 a.m., 2 p.m., and 6 p.m.

Race officials for the Kuskokwim 300 sled dog race are waiving the entry fee for any musher looking to run the organization’s three races this January.

Race Manager Zach Fansler said the $400 entry fee for the 300-mile mid-distance race, and similar entry fees for the Bogus Creek 150 and the Akiak Dash, are being dropped for 2015.

Fansler hopes, by dropping the entry fee, more mushers will be able to race.

“For our local mushers, sometimes it’s hard to put that money out up front, so we’ve looked into ways to reduce those costs. For mushers traveling in [from] outside the Delta, obviously the cost of travel there is pretty high. So we thought this was something we could personally control and try to see if it was something that would encourage more mushers to come to our race.”

Entry fees will be waived for any musher who registers before Dec. 15. Mushers must also be members of the K300 race committee and mileage sponsors, a $100 caveat Fansler said has been in place for years and shouldn’t be anything new for mushers.

“That was already a pre-existing requirement to race in the K300, that you would be a member of our race committee,” he said. “That is for state purposes and things like that, to maintain our corporate status.”

Dropping the entry fee for the K300 comes less than a month after the race announced an increase in payouts. The K300 race will see its purse grow by $10,000 to $120,000. The Bogus Creek and Akiak Dash will pay out $30,000 and $12,500, respectively.

It’s the second purse increase in three years. Fansler said the races core of dedicated volunteers make it possible.

“We have a very small payroll for our employees. We’re a very small operation. Our board doesn’t get compensated,” he said. “Things other organizations have to pay for, or pay a lot more for, we are either able to get donated or [have] volunteers do for us, and that’s where we have a significant savings over a lot of these other races.